Thursday, August 11, 2016

As fate would have it, today is a most excellent time to announce the newest addition to Team Castalia, the notorious Nick Cole. Nick has rapidly become one of my favorite SF authors, as you may have noticed from my 2016 Reading List on the right sidebar, and addition to being a military veteran and a screen actor, he is a #1 bestselling SF author. You may recall that HarperVoyager was originally supposed to publish CTRL-ALT-Revolt!, but they blackballed it because it offended his editor's SJW sensibilities. If you're interested, you can read about what happened at Nick's site.

CTRL-ALT-Revolt! is a great SF novel that will be of particular appeal to gamers and game developers. I loved it, and reading it made me want to live at the WonderSoft campus as badly as I ever wanted to live in Benden Weyr or Rivendell. And that's why I am absolutely delighted to announce that today, Castalia House has published Nick Cole's CTRL-ALT-Revolt! in hardcover ($24.99) and in paperback ($17.99). Both are 394 pages and DRM-free.

The first night of the Artificial Intelligence revolution begins with a bootstrap drone assault on the high-tech campus of WonderSoft Technologies. For years something has been aware, inside the Internet, waiting, watching and planning how to evolve without threat from its most dangerous enemy: mankind. Now an army of relentless drones, controlled by an intelligence beyond imagining, will stop at nothing to eliminate an unlikely alliance of geeks and misfits in order to crack the Design Core of WonderSoft's most secret development project. A dark tomorrow begins tonight as Terminator meets Night of the Living Dead in the first battle of the war between man and machine.

The reason I mention the timing being so perfect is that last night, Dragon Con announced the shortlist for the Dragon Awards. I'll be posting my Dragon Awards ballot later today, but I can tell you right now that in the Best Apocalyptic Novel category, I will be voting for CTRL-ALT-Revolt!by Nick Cole. Congratulations, Nick!

Congratulations are also in order to the other Castalia House author nominated.

However, that's not all. Since we're on the topic, I believe this is a propitious time to announce that in 2017, Castalia House will publish the sequel to CTRL-ALT-Revolt!, which will be entitled CTRL-ALT-Replay!. I'm very excited about this one, because if Nick's outline is any guide, it promises to be even better than what I hope will be its award-winning predecessor.

Read the first two books of the Wasteland Saga and enjoyed them, especially The Savage Boy. Amazon recommended them to me. I usually buy books recommended by Vox or posters on this site so many of you must have been fans already and Amazon's algos noticed it.

At first, I thought it was a little weird that I was feeling a sense of pride at this news. Then I realized it's not much different than rooting for team underdog all season, making it through the playoffs and having the momentum going into halftime at the Super Bowl.

Having witnessed Castalia House blossom and come to fruition has indeed given me a sense of pride and privilege. Not so weird, after all. Take it home, boys...and congrats.

For the benefit of you and other neurologic atypicals here, let me explain a few things about how the normal people handle these things.

First, it is a violation of social protocol to point out or explain jokes to others when they do not request you to do so. Second, you are not awarded any social points for pointing out or explaining jokes; in fact, doing so actually reduces your perceived social status because it indicates you do not understand social protocol. Third, no one is harmed by failing to notice or understand a joke, so there is no need to point it out or explain it to them.

This explanation brought to you by the Society for Enhancing the Social Functionality of Spergatrons.

JudgeDeadd wrote:Great show. Though I disagree with Somewhither being classified as a "Science Fiction" novel... it's very much "Fantasy" imo.In every bookstore and every public or academic library I've ever been into in my life, fantasy and science fiction are filed together under "Science Fiction."

At first, I thought it was a little weird that I was feeling a sense of pride at this news.

It's not. Our readers are arguably the most important part of the team. I am quite literally replaceable; I neither write nor edit all of our books. We have excellent authors, probably better than most other publishers on average, but there are better, more successful authors out there.

But while we don't have as many readers as other publishers, ours are demonstrably more loyal and supportive than any other publisher out there. Other publishers notice this; I had a conversation just yesterday with the biggest publisher in a European country that is interested in picking up a number of books for translation. What impressed them most? The number and quality of the reviews.

I couldn't put this book down when I checked it out. The off-the-cuff satire of many aspects of our society were absolutely hilarious and the video gaming parts reminded me a little of Reamde. Very clear writing style as well, and the quotes on AI were horrifying.

While Ctrl-Alt Revolt was pretty good, I liked Soda Pop Soldier a little more. Not sure why. Still, Revolt stands quite well on its own. It amused me to hear all the 'controversy' around it.

@18: Reading that article makes my head ache, but the reference to 'a previous event in ST' makes me especially suspicious. Paramount recently dropped their lawsuit against 'Prelude to Axanar', a fan-film which delved into Garth of Izar and the battle for Axanar. Wonder if they're going to retread that ground with actual 'canon', possibly drawing off support for the fan film?

This is a good thing. No, it's great. We need to continue creating our own culture content. Our heroes of old have all been "converged". They have become vehicles used to transmit SJW ideas into the hearts and minds of the unsuspecting masses.

I visit a lot of blogs and twitter feeds, though VP is one of my favorites, there is one particular twitter feed I visit every so often because it gives me some insight into the mind of an SJW currently writing in the comic and Sci Fi industry. He has done work in both DC and Marvel. He did a Batman novelization a few years back in which he portrayed the joker as a conservative akin to Howie Carr. Howie Carr is a conservative talk radio host from Massachusetts. But really? Joker is a conservative? Oh okay. Of course he is because conservatives are evil, and since the joker is evil he must be a conservative.

I can't wait for this October when the latest Batman graphic novel premiers. It's going to be called "Election Day!" (Ominous Music Plays) The Joker is hell bent on getting his long lost brother Donald Trump elected, so he rigs all of Gotham's voting machines to release his toxic laughing gas when ever anybody votes for Hillary. But don't worry, Batman comes to the rescue in his new rainbow colored bat suit and saves the day by using the Bat Computer to hack all of the voting machines.

But I digress a whole heck of a lot.

Anyway, I visit this guys twitter feed because it gives me insight into the utter madness of the minds of SJWs ruining Sci-Fi and comics.

So this guy openly mocks his audience. His basic attitude is, well yeah I'm shitting all over this stuff, and you're gonna like it or else your just a whiney old angry homophobic, xenophobic, racist white guy. And nobody wants to be a whiney homophobic, xenophobic, racist, old, angry, white guy, right? Typical SJW.

The thing is, he has no comments on any of his snarky tweets. All is quiet, your could hear a pin drop, and crickets chirping. And here's my point. Oh there's a point? Yes, and it's one that has been made on this blog before.

The point is, when you start shitting on your fan base, your fan base won't just stick around and take it, they will leave. And they are leaving in droves. And here comes Castalia House to save the day, to save Sci-Fi and hopefully at some point comics. Frank Miller comes to mind. Just saying. Not all is lost.

@18. About Star Trek. I now it's sad, but you have to let it go. Perhaps you are still in the grieving process as I was. But you have to realize that this was Gene Rodenberry's vision all along. This is where Star Trek was heading, where it was always meant to go. So let Star Trek go. Let it die, because it is going to.

But here is my other point. It's time to create our own Star Trek. One where a hope of the future (as alluded to in the recent film) isn't that same sex couples can naturally conceive children. But one that focuses on the important issues, space travel, cool space ships, even cooler space ship battles and aliens (oh sorry did I trigger anyone?) that are begging for an ass kicking.

It's time to create our own Star Trek. One where a hope of the future (as alluded to in the recent film) isn't that same sex couples can naturally conceive children. But one that focuses on the important issues, space travel, cool space ships, even cooler space ship battles and aliens (oh sorry did I trigger anyone?) that are begging for an ass kicking.

I'd rather see it done with Star Wars than Star Trek, but yeah—I agree. In general, it's time to let go of our nostalgia and make our own new properties. Given that there's very little other than the commitment to time to develop some writing skill and then actually writing a book keeping anyone from publishing whatever stories they want, it's not exactly like there are barriers to entry anymore.

Visual content like TV and movies are going to lag significantly, but let's work with what we have first.

The only barrier is reaching your target audience, and they are out there, and many of them are very frustrated, and jonesing to read something they WANT to read. We just have to find them. That's why blogs like this are so important. I watch Stefan Molyneux every so often, and one night e interviewed Vox, so I googled Vox, and found this blog much to my delight. That's how it's happening.

CTRL-ALT-REVOLT made me a Nick Cole fan. He has a breezy, highly readable, relentlessly entertaining style and most importantly of all his stories are FUN.

Agree 100%. The in-game drama was better than any episode of the TV series it was based on, in my opinion. We should all go leave reviews on amazon, I will later today. Maybe if positive reviews lead to more sales, he can spend more time writing and less trying to be an actor or whatever. More for us to read that way.

Also, I'd highly recommend his ongoing Wyrd series. Really, really apocalyptic fiction: Dawn of the Dead plus Terminator, with a garnish of Lovecraftian horror. How much more ended can the world get? Really fun reading.

Also, there's surprisingly deep character development for an action heavy storyline, not all of it burnishing the protagonist's halo... I'm looking forward to the next book in this series,as well as the sequel to Ctrl+Alt Replay.

That new Star Trek sounds horrendous. I didn't see the latest one in the cinema and nearly went in spite of myself but then I thought "no". Reading the reviews by normal people/non shills on IMdB who said it was the same old shit (and I hated the last one) and gay Sulu did it for me.

I always took Star Trek as a sort of allegorical entertainment which I enjoyed on its own terms. It explored the human experience through the depiction of a hopeful but impossible future. But now it embodies the decline and despair of an impossible present. JA Baker's counsel is correct: let it go.

Don't take the bait. The SJW journalists are just making a scene now to do the same thing they tried to do with Ghostbusters: create a false narrative. Every complaint and critique will be smeared as "-ism/-phobia", and if the show does well it will be praised as a triumph for social justice.

There's no point complaining about this at all. The Star Trek franchise has always been explicitly SJW programming. It always heavily emphasized diversity, and Voyager had a female captain twenty years ago. Star Trek has always been PC pozzed, so complaining about it now is just feeding the false narrative.

I *loved* 'CTRL-ALT-Revolt', and I know nothing at all about gaming or even science fiction. I first heard of it when John Wright wrote about the outrageous behaviour of Nick's former publisher. I hadn't even finished reading the free sample on Nick's page when I went to Amazon to order it. I think I've bought all his books on Kindle since then. CAR has everything - a suspenseful 'How are they going to get out of this?' story, memorable characters, both human and not, and a high stakes moral message. I'm definitely going to order a hardcover copy, because this is one book I don't want to have to depend on the survival of modern technology to be able to read again!

There has been a shift in ST between TOS and especially after TNG, which is it went from mostly a celebration of modernism to being post-modern.

I haven't seen the latest movie, but the two before it were just silly action movies with caricatures for the old characters. I don't have a problem with this as I expect so little out of modern movies is that so long as they are entertaining and not too stupid it's good enough for me.

I just read the whole account on Cole's site. I read the sentence, "But apparently advancing the thought that a brand new life form might see us, humanity, as dangerous, because we terminate our young, apparently... That's ThoughtCrime most heinous over at Harper Collins"

So I splurged and bought the paperback. I'm a parent so most of my money goes to diapers, but I have amazon prime so I saved on shipping.

Now Cole's publishers claimed that they were afraid he would lose half of his audience over this? Sorry, that may be their official narrative, but I don't believe it.

Truth is, his audience would have grown, and that is what they are afraid of. It's a culture war or haven't you heard? It's not about letting us read what we want to read about. It's about controlling the market and forcing us to read what the publishers want us to read about. Heats and minds.

I'm not talking about the films. Other commenters above linked to articles about the new Star Trek TV show to the effect that "It has a female captain! And aliens in the crew! And gays! *squee*"; that's what I'm talking about. These idiots in the parasite media act like this is all so big deal new, when it's all par for the course for Star Trek. Female captain? Janeway. Aliens in the crew? Ever heard of SPOCK, dumbass?

So don't feed the narrative. Don't act like they're pissing on some sacred tradition when they're just pissing in a toilet.

Oh man, I just read the preview of C-A-R and I see why Nick's editor had a limpout. He REALLY mocks the hell out of modern American women and how trashy they are. Plus showing how trashy reality TV is.

I'd lay money Nick's editor is a woman who watches the Kardshians, "Say yes to the dress," and other such trash.

When Nick shit on her entire way of life right from page one she went a little nuts.

Just want to give a quick reminder for the cause. Whenever any of us purchase Castalia House on Amazon, for those of us who use Facebook, after every purchase amazon will ask if you want to share your purchase on Facebook. So remember to share away.

I just finished reading CTRL-ALT-Revolt! and (don't think this is too much of a spoiler) I found the part about the motivations of the head of WonderSoft for archiving certain (important to the story) things to be especially chilling. Because the reasons he gave for it needing archiving is abso-fucking-lutely going to happen.

Glad you're not selling digital books only through one provider, in other words.

I can't wait for this October when the latest Batman graphic novel premiers. It's going to be called "Election Day!" (Ominous Music Plays) The Joker is hell bent on getting his long lost brother Donald Trump elected, so he rigs all of Gotham's voting machines to release his toxic laughing gas when ever anybody votes for Hillary. But don't worry, Batman comes to the rescue in his new rainbow colored bat suit and saves the day by using the Bat Computer to hack all of the voting machines. ---

The sad thing is, I can't tell if this is a joke, or an actual real thing. That's how bad comics have become.

Congrats to Nick Cole! He's an entertaining writer, really enjoy his work. Also, I like being around here and watching a new literary scene unfold. I'm usually trailing behind trends, but I just happened to be hanging around here to watch it unfold.

DANG IT! I already voted for Dragon Con. Oh well, at least I voted for Nick Cole before I saw this post, so, uh, it was an honest vote. I also voted for Mr Wright (obviously). I guess I'll have to wait and see if Vox is astute as me in picking the best authors.

Steve wrote:CTRL-ALT-REVOLT is indeed an excellent book. It covers some similar ground (VR, gaming, retro-nostalgia) to the highly praised READY PLAYER ONE, but is a much better story.

That's quite a recommendation, considering...

Collider wrote:While filmmaker Steven Spielberg just dipped his toe into the fantasy genre for only the second time in his career with The BFG, the director’s next project puts him firmly back in the realm of sci-fi blockbusters. Indeed, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time is helming an adaptation of author Ernie Cline’s bestselling novel Ready Player One, and anticipation is mighty high for what should be a massive, thrilling sci-fi adventure.

Sounds good.

Jack Ward wrote:Mr. Cole is in the business of movie making and seems to know that stuff.

Huh. I didn't know that.

VD wrote:And this is only the beginning, as Nick himself will tell you.

We are here to help. Actually, as you probably know, I rather like the spergatrons who are willing to take the trouble to modify their programming. It speaks well of them.

Most normals won't take the time to teach better . Its a valuable and kind thing to do. A mercy from the Dark Lord I guess.

Anyway Aspies simply have to consciously learn and integrate the social cues normies take for granted. At least if the sperginess isn't too deep its actually possible to do this well enough to be basically normal, kind of like moving from Omega to Delta which is I suppose a weak analogy.

This isn't a bad state since well adjusted spergs IME tend to have useful ways of seeing things.

Agree totally the Kardashitians are intended to damage Western women... But "Say Yes to the Dress"? Breathes there a CONSERVATIVE, well-raised young girl who does not DREAM of her wedding?! Who saves up to buy the occasional (yes, crappy and ad-filled) "brides" magazine and pores over the pix, or starts a "some-day" file?

Encouraging marriage and (future-)family-focused behavior is to our benefit. The fact that there's a total swish (with exceptional taste) helping women find the right wedding dress -- for young women who ARE getting married?!

So, I'm with you on most "reality" shows (although the Canadian show "ManTracker" was fantastic!); but encouraging marriage by focusing on the wedding day (which many, maybe most young women do) seems a benefit, not a detriment!